(Yicai) April 1 -- China will ensure that soon-to-be mothers living in smallish counties will have a clinic that can help them deliver their babies despite the dropping birth rate.

Local healthcare administrators need to make sure there is at least one public hospital with an obstetrics department in counties with 300,000 residents or less, the national health commission wrote in a document recently.

As couples have fewer children, at least 11 hospitals in China have shut down their maternity units since last year, according to incomplete statistics. Last year, China welcomed nine million new citizens, less than half of new births in 2016, according to data released by the stats bureau in February.

In 2021, the nation had around 790 maternity hospitals, down from nearly 810 in 2019, per yearbooks of health statistics. Their beds were often empty as the related utilization rate fell to 44.1 percent from 52.2 percent.

Li Xiaomao, a professor at the gynecology and obstetrics department of Guangzhou's Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, said to Yicai that it is difficult for the department to stay operational if it fails to help deliver 50 babies per month. Another concern is that staff will start to get out of practice, Li added.

An obstetrician said to Yicai that the department largely relies on its own revenue. It was common for a doctor to earn CNY10,000 (USD1,380) per month at the birth peak in 2016 but now a young doctor is likely to earn less than 10k due to the decline in births, the source added.

The agency of national health policy also said that hospitals cannot incentivize staff by linking up their salaries to sales of drugs, medical supplies, check-ups, or lab tests. But they still need to provide fair pay in comparison to other departments.

Editor: Emmi Laine